New Music Video: Bill Callahan “Riding for the Feeling”

This is the video for Bill Callahan‘s “Riding for the Feeling” the latest single from his Apocalypse LP, which is out now on Drag City.  The video’s ballsy approach to minimalism fits the music perfectly and is as enticing as it is relaxing.

New Music Video: J Dilla “Geekdown”

Illustrator, animator, and and now video director Steve Smith recently put together a short animation for the Stones Throw video contest. Choosing  ”Geekdown” from J Dilla’s (RIP) now classic album Donuts, which never had a video before, already made Smith a winner to me.  The fact Smith’s lively animation work is reminiscent of Mike Judge, Bill Plympton and The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine means he has good chance of winning more than just my heart.

BTW for those interested the contest ends July 1. Semi-finalists will get a $200 credit to be used on stonesthrow.com and the winner will get a $1000 check and a chance to direct an upcoming video for the label. Deets

Website Shout Out: RSA Animate

Via RSA:

For over 250 years the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress.  Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action.

We encourage public discourse and critical debate by providing platforms for leading experts to share new ideas on contemporary issues, through our public events programme, RSA Journal and RSA Comment.

RSA Animate is like an British version of Ted Talks with helpful animations. To get you started we’ve posted two of our favorite videos from the series. One tackles the importance of building an empathic civilization and the second deals with changing education paradigms. They’re also up for a Webby Award in the Animation Category so vote for them if you like what you see and hear.

Re-GIF: I Got Your Pooh Right Here!

These bloody par­odies of Dis­ney ani­ma­tions were cre­ated by Denis, a Russ­ian artist who lives in Moscow. That’s all the information we have for now.

found at Design You Trust

Watch: “Hedgehog in the Fog” – A Masterful Russian Cartoon from 1975

Via The Daily What:

It’s a little-known fact outside Russia that Cold War-era cartoons are something of a sight to behold. Unlike their Western counterparts, animators working for the influential Moscow-based Soyuzmultfilm animation studio were not constrained by commercial concerns (the success or failure of a film had no bearing on an animator’s paycheck), and were therefore free to experiment with styles and techniques that would otherwise be considered commercially precarious.

A perfect example of the end-result can be found in Yuriy Norshteyn’s Hedgehog in the Fog. Considered by many to be one of the greatest animated films by one of the greatest animators of all time — iconic Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki has called Norshteyn “a great artist”  — the 1975 Soyuzmultfilm classic tells the tale of a curious hedgehog who stumbles upon a thick fog and decides to explore its mysteries.

If you’re interested in learning more about Norshteyn watch this clip from a documentary about Russian animation entitled Magia Russica.

We also highly suggest watching Norshteyn’s equally brilliant short film Tale of Tales. (Part 1 2 3)